Vandals make mark at Breen Park

Lauren Weber/ The Placer HeraldGraffiti along the swing railing shows 23 names separated by plus signs; at the end of the list is an equal sign, followed by: BFF’s.

Lauren Weber/ The Placer HeraldGraffiti on Breen Park’s slide could cost about $75 to remove, according to Armand Marquis, parks trades worker with the city’s parks and recreation department.

Lauren Weber/ The Placer HeraldGraffiti on Breen Park’s slide could cost about $75 to remove, according to Armand Marquis, parks trades worker with the city’s parks and recreation department.

Lauren Weber/ The Placer HeraldBreen vandalism 01-04: Vandals took a black pen to the Breen Park sign, part of a recent act of vandalism throughout the park. Neighbors say this isn’t the first time, but has been an ongoing issue recently.

Breen Park in Rocklin has been the target of a recent spurt of vandalism.
The park’s entrance sign is the first mark of the taggers and walking further into the park to the larger playground shows more evidence of graffiti.
Tuesday morning, neighbors who visited the park, located at Shelton Street and Swindon Road, encountered black ink scribbled along the yellow slide, the underside of the play area roof, along the poles and on picnic tables. One of the metal table benches had been bent and a red metal railing along a play area landing was gone – all done with force that must have been aided with tools, according to Armand Marquis, parks trades worker with the city of Rocklin’s parks and recreation department.
Marquis was on-site Tuesday afternoon surveying the damage and taking photos of the marks. He said this week’s incident was part of a slew of recent markings done by a person or people yet to be caught.
“We will spray and spray and spray and they will just come back,” he said.
Marquis said some of the markings have been repeated in the same area where previous marks have been removed.
“Every time we turn around, there’s another one,” said Debbie Leung, a Rocklin resident who lives in the Breen Park neighborhood and works for the city’s Parks and Recreation department.
Down the slide, the taggers wrote: Rock Town Living, which Marquis said could cost about $75 to clean off. The total damage done to the park this week could add up to between $200-300, Marquis said.
“I hope if and when we catch who is doing this, the city will be reimbursed,” he said. “This is terrible.”
According to Mike Nottoli, Rocklin Police Department crime prevention and volunteer coordinator, there was another graffiti report at Breen Park on July 28, where it was reported that similar black markings were found on the granite park sign.
Nottoli said Rocklin Police are still at the exploratory stage of the investigation and there are no suspects at this time.
Anyone with information, call the Rocklin Police Department at 625-5400.